NEW YORK—Apple led today's event by talking about two of its most-loved devices: the MacBook Air and the Mac mini. While Apple customers may have loved these devices since their debuts, Apple hasn't shown them much love over the past couple of years.

Further Reading

That changed today with the introduction of the new MacBook Air (which includes updates like a Retina display, Touch ID, and Apple's butterfly keyboard) and a new Mac mini (which got a big spec bump with quad- and hexa-core processors). Today's event brought the biggest hardware changes that both devices have seen in a long time, and yet they still have a lot in common with their predecessors—and that's a good thing.

A sleeker MacBook Air

The MacBook Air began showing its age long before the 12-inch MacBook and the new MacBook Pros entered Apple's laptop lineup. But the stale, circa-2010 design is almost gone now (keyword almost), as the new MacBook Air takes notes from its more expensive siblings. It's still a sleek, all-metal notebook that's 10 percent thinner than the old model and weighs just 2.75 pounds.

The Air is noticeably heavier than the 12-inch MacBook (2.06 pounds), but I appreciated the weight of it when I picked it up. Despite the various ways Apple managed to shrink the device, it still felt like a MacBook Air in my hands. Its tapered profile, with the widest point at the back, feels familiar and sturdy, and now the device is made of 100-percent recycled aluminum. Apple also added new colors to the lineup and will offer the MacBook Air in silver, space gray, and gold.

Further Reading

Gone are the wide, metal bezels around the 13.3-inch display, as they've been replaced by the glossy black bezels we're accustomed to seeing around new MacBook displays. But the fact that the new MacBook Air has a Retina display will be enough to make fans swoon. The 2560×1600 display is a huge upgrade from the old Air's 1440×900 display, and it's about time that Apple included it on this laptop. The old Air was the final Retina holdout after the high-quality screen already made it onto the 12-inch MacBook and the MacBook Pros.

Apple opted not to put its full Touch Bar on the new MacBook Air, but instead it carved out the Touch ID fingerprint reader and stuck it on the top-right corner of the keyboard. You won't find Face ID on this device (it's still sequestered to iPhones and iPads), but including Touch ID brings a much-loved feature to a much-loved laptop. The device is also more secure thanks to the inclusion of Apple's T2 security chip.

Apple made the right call by forgoing the Touch Bar, because including that OLED strip would have added to the price of the device, and it may have had a negative effect on battery life. There are also some users who simply don't want or need the Touch Bar, so keeping the new MacBook Air simple will likely speak to those users.

The keyboard and trackpad area looks similar to its counterpart on the 12-inch MacBook: there's little space between the bottom keys and the enormous force touch trackpad, and the keyboard uses Apple's butterfly mechanism. That may scare off some users since butterfly keys have had problems in the past and have been known to be polarizing. But Apple clearly hasn't been deterred by the naysayers: it has put butterfly keys on the 12-inch MacBook and the MacBook Pros. It was only a matter of time before Apple retired the MacBook Air's chiclet keys and brought in the butterfly switches.

The speakers still sit on either side of the keys, but Apple promises they'll be 25-percent louder than those on the old Air. The new MacBook Air's hardware looks more streamlined than that on the old Air, but it's not as dramatic as that of the 12-inch MacBook. The former device was never for me, particularly because I felt like it would shatter (or, at the very least, be severely damaged) if I were to drop it, and because I don't like the look of the cramped keyboard-and-trackpad area. The new MacBook Air seems to marry the most crucial parts of the 12-inch MacBook's design (butterfly keyboard, huge trackpad) with a chassis setup that will feel familiar to MacBook Air lovers.

After years of waiting, we first went hands-on with the 2018 Mac mini following Apple's announcement event.

Valentina Palladino

The outer shell looks similar to the old model but now comes in space gray.

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It supports quad- and hexa-core Intel CPUs now, as well as up to 64GB of RAM and 2TB of storage.

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Rear ports include four Thunderbolt 3 ports, two USB-A ports, an Ethernet port, an HDMI port, and a headphone jack.

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Those new specs give the Mac mini a higher starting price—$799.

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In addition to the butterfly keys, the new MacBook Air's port situation may turn bothersome. It has two Thunderbolt 3 ports on its left edge and a headphone jack on the right edge. It's slightly too thin to fit a USB-A port, which is a bummer, and it means that Mac users will continue to live the dongle life for the foreseeable future. I also wish Apple put one Thunderbolt 3 port on either side of the device—being able to charge up or connect to peripherals from both sides of a laptop is useful, particularly when you're in a tight space.

Let's recap the new MacBook Air's specs: it'll run on 8th-gen Intel Core i5 CPUs and support up to 16GB of RAM and 1.5TB of storage. While we're disappointed that there's no Core i7 option, those specs are significantly improved from the old Air (it was lagging on a 5th-gen Core i5 chip). Apple claims the new MacBook Air will last 12 hours on a single charge.

A stronger Mac mini

The last time Apple talked about the Mac mini on stage was in 2014, and some did not like what the company had to say. Apple got rid of the four-core CPU option for the Mac mini at that time, and the device became harder to upgrade.

Further Reading

While we can't speak to the new Mac mini's upgradability, Apple rectified the device's performance problems by including quad- and hexa-core Intel CPU options, as well as support for up to 64GB of RAM and 2TB of storage.

Along with the addition of the T2 security chip, the new Mac mini has an array of ports on its back edge: four Thunderbolt 3 ports, two USB-A ports, an Ethernet port that can be configured to support 10Gb speeds, an HDMI port, and a headphone jack.

All of the Mac mini's significant changes lie within the device itself. The outer shell doesn't look much different from the previous model, aside from the fact that it now comes in space gray. It takes up a small 7.7×7.7-inch footprint on a desk, and you can stack them on top of or next to one another if you need the power of more than one Mac mini at once.

The Mac mini's small frame remains one of the best things about it, because it saves space on users' desks while also providing a decent amount of power. We're eager to get our hands on one to test out the new internals and see just how well the new Mac mini stands up to the newest competing desktop PCs.

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Valentina Palladino
Valentina reviews consumer electronics for Ars Technica, testing all kinds of gadgets with a focus on mobile devices and wearables. She has a soft spot for Chromebooks. Twitter@valentinalucia

The black glass bezels do look significantly better, and I say this loving my last gen MBA. I trust Apple's security when it comes to TouchID, the secure enclave, and storing the fingerprint data, but I think I would continue using password only for my mobile computer, as illogical as it may sound. Maybe it's because I was opening a laptop and entering a password for a full 10 years before I had a phone that required a password, the phone muscle memory was easier to erase.

The TB3/USB-C concept is pretty cool. Sounds like they're listening about consumer complaints when it comes to connectivity. The dual usage ports will put this ahead of it's competition, I think

Apples web site makes it look like the RAM will be user replaceable, the Storage looks like it might be user replaceable as well however it's not as easy to tell from the pictures they have posted on the site.

I ended up with a used trash can Mac Pro for my desktop Mac workstation. Upgraded the Xeon and RAM by myself but being stuck on TB2 is a bit of a pain. In retrospect I probably should've waited for the Mac mini refresh.

TB3 is amazing if you get your work environment set up properly. I'm a little disappointed about the lack of user replaceable storage, but this machine seems like it should keep desktop Mac users (and in particular schools and university IT offices) happy.

Apples web site makes it look like the RAM will be user replaceable, the Storage looks like it might be user replaceable as well however it's not as easy to tell from the pictures they have posted on the site.

The storage cannot be user upgradable. All new Macs come with the T2 chip as SSD controller of the SSD flash memory soldered to the motherboard...

It would appear that for people that use the Macbook Air for writing, this is going to be a no go. I'm not sure what Apple was thinking, besides making devices as thin as possible. However, for those of use who write or code, the quality of a keyboard is paramount and those "butterfly" keys don't even rank in the 'acceptable' category of modern keyboards. They may be better than some of the membrane keys from 10 years ago, but even bargain basement laptops have better keyboards. The upgraded resolution looks nice and the features are pretty good for a ultralight notetaker. However, please Apple, make a "Pro" device with a decent keyboard.

Hmm. The slowest versions of the new MacBook Air and the 12" MB with 16 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD (which is what I would buy) are $1599 vs $1499. The MacBook has a smaller screen, only one port and the slower CPU, but it is smaller, lighter and the keyboard gets 4 years of warranty and it is $100 cheaper.

And then there is the MacBook Pro nTB which is with 16/256 GB $100 more than the MacBook Air, but also has the "old" keyboard which may fail more often, but which Apple will replace along with the the upper case and the battery for a full four years and is very much the same as the new MacBook Air just without the fingerprint sensor.

A 5W processor with a price tag today that's a 1000 dollars more expensive (SEK converted to USD) than it was in 2013 with the equivalent upgrades to RAM and SSD. No thanks Apple. You've essentially priced me out of every single Macbook. Nothing in your line-up is currently a good deal, and that's including the small arbitrary Apple tax.

Don't know what I'll do when my 2013 breaks. The only real solace I take is that it still runs just like new (with one battery change). Which actually is one of the best pieces of tech I've ever bought. Too bad there's nothing close to its "bang for the buck" these days.

I'm intrigued by the Mini. I think the price is a bit high for the specs, but if it is upgradable then I may get one.

The new MBA is exactly what one would have expected, but it's disappointing for me. It's not surprising that Apple dropped the old-style keyboard and legacy ports, but those were far more important to me than the new screen and reduced thickness.

My 2013 A1398 MBP is still working pretty well, so I'm hoping it continues to limp along until something in the Wintel world checks all the boxes.

Any word on dimensions that aren't thickness? Even though we all knew the 11.6" size was gone, my ideal laptop's probably a 11.6" with Retina display-- fits on an airplane tray table, big enough to type on.

I'm hoping that even with the bigger display, smaller bezels ought to put this pretty similarly sized.

It would appear that for people that use the Macbook Air for writing, this is going to be a no go. I'm not sure what Apple was thinking, besides making devices as thin as possible. However, for those of use who write or code, the quality of a keyboard is paramount and those "butterfly" keys don't even rank in the 'acceptable' category of modern keyboards. They may be better than some of the membrane keys from 10 years ago, but even bargain basement laptops have better keyboards. The upgraded resolution looks nice and the features are pretty good for a ultralight notetaker. However, please Apple, make a "Pro" device with a decent keyboard.

I've gotten ripped for this opinion before, but I agree with this. My work MBP with 2nd generation butterfly is tiring to type on, for reasons that I can't exactly identify. I can type on my personal 2013 MBP all day long, but after an hour or so on my work laptop I'm making mistakes and my fingers just feel ... fatigued. I am happy at least to see they left the touchbar off the MBA!

My other pet peeve on the later MBPs is the massive trackpad. I'll have to see what the trackpad on the MBA looks like, but I register way too many phantom swipes on the giant version on my MBP.

I have owned many generations of mini, this version gets so many things right that the prior gen got wrong (causing me not to buy it). It has the right ports, a 6-core option, upgradeable memory.

And yet. It also makes me wish that what exists between the mini and the Mac Pro was not just the iMac. To think what Apple could do in terms of design for a bigger version of the mini that had more expandability, 4 DIMM slots instead of two, a socketed desktop CPU instead of soldered, an M2 SSD option to add storage. I had the cheese grater Mac Pro and it was just as beautiful inside as out. So well though out for upgrades. I know the market data tells Apple not to bother. But I personally wish they would.

Reading through other forums, I was not alone when my BTO 2014 i7 Mac Mini was overheating ; I had that baby into Apple Care four times for four system board replacements before I bought a stand that was actually recommended by the last Apple Care tech. She said she had seen a number of them with heating issues but not enough to issue a recall of them from Apple.

Since I bought that $10 stand, not a single overheating problem, and I have not powered it off in two years now save for reboots due to software updates.

It would appear that for people that use the Macbook Air for writing, this is going to be a no go. I'm not sure what Apple was thinking, besides making devices as thin as possible. However, for those of use who write or code, the quality of a keyboard is paramount and those "butterfly" keys don't even rank in the 'acceptable' category of modern keyboards. They may be better than some of the membrane keys from 10 years ago, but even bargain basement laptops have better keyboards. The upgraded resolution looks nice and the features are pretty good for a ultralight notetaker. However, please Apple, make a "Pro" device with a decent keyboard.

The butterfly keyboards are different just like the chiclet keyboards where different 10 years ago. You can get used to them and even love them, but you will NEVER get used to something that is not reliable and exactly this is the problem. Even if the newest iteration should prove to be not worse than the old keyboards nobody will believe it because Apple dragged its feet too long on that and you just won't trust them.

Again, if these keyboards would have been utterly reliable from the outset in 2015 (when they first appeared in the 12" MacBook) people now would love them just as they finally loved the chiclet keyboards. But Apple just screwed this up and you never get a second chance with this kind of changes. It's all about reputation and this keyboard has a terrible reputation.

It would appear that for people that use the Macbook Air for writing, this is going to be a no go. I'm not sure what Apple was thinking, besides making devices as thin as possible. However, for those of use who write or code, the quality of a keyboard is paramount and those "butterfly" keys don't even rank in the 'acceptable' category of modern keyboards. They may be better than some of the membrane keys from 10 years ago, but even bargain basement laptops have better keyboards. The upgraded resolution looks nice and the features are pretty good for a ultralight notetaker. However, please Apple, make a "Pro" device with a decent keyboard.

Every time someone says this I have to chime in . I code for a living. I type for most of the day, every day. I use a 13" MBP with touch bar. For my money and my fingers (and wrists) the new keyboard is *by far* the best keyboard I've used in my 20-something year career. The only keyboard I'd rank higher is my old IBM M15 ergonomic keyboard with buckling spring switches. Nothing else compares in comfort to the keyboard I'm typing on right now.

Apples web site makes it look like the RAM will be user replaceable, the Storage looks like it might be user replaceable as well however it's not as easy to tell from the pictures they have posted on the site.

They said the RAM is user replaceable during the keynote.

As for storage, it might not be possible in practice. M.2 drives are available in multiple sizes, and Apple tends to use the smaller ones, which often results in severely compromised performance if you upgrade to a third party drive. An SSD only has high performance if it's able to write to multiple flash chips in parallel and the smaller M.2 drives usually have fewer chips and are therefore half or even one quarter as fast as the full size, while Apple's custom ordered chips use smaller chips to maintain good performance.

Also this new model has an Apple designed flash memory controller (in the T2 chip which does full disk encryption) which isn't part of the M.2 drive. I'm not sure if that will be compatible with third party ones, they all have their own controller on board.

Apple’s hardware strategy is becoming a convoluted mess. Now the Air is the better buy for many people over the Pro and has Touch ID but not Face ID . The Pro model has an old processor but more ram. The Air maintains a headphone jack but the iPad Pro doesn’t have one anymore - but instead USB C for which you need another dongle. They all have a crappy keyboard.

It’s beyond me why they would not upgrade the processor generation in the Pros.

The only model without a major compromise seems to be the mini, except that it lost its innocence and had a steep price increase for the entry model.

Just seven weeks ago you could buy a smartphone from Apple for $400 and a desktop computer for $500. Now you have to spend $570 and $800 respectively. Those are big price jumps. When they sell off their stock of old MacBook Airs, the entry cost for a laptop will be $1200. Of course Apple are entitled to take themselves upmarket if they want, but I know plenty of non-techie people who simply won't pay those prices, so will switch to Windows PCs and Android phones. Then they'll come to me for help with them. Apple thinks those people should use iPads, but they still want a "proper" computer they can sit down at (and preferably plug a screen, mouse and printer into, and still be powered at the same time.)

Damnit Apple, I really really like macOS and my MBP13 2013. It hasn’t died yet but it might soon and when it does you’ve made it incredibly difficult to consider another MacBook to replace it with. What happened to you guys. That silicone valley lifestyle has convinced you that the rest of the world makes drops a grand on regular lifestyle expenses a week

I have owned many generations of mini, this version gets so many things right that the prior gen got wrong (causing me not to buy it). It has the right ports, a 6-core option, upgradeable memory.

And yet. It also makes me wish that what exists between the mini and the Mac Pro was not just the iMac. To think what Apple could do in terms of design for a bigger version of the mini that had more expandability, 4 DIMM slots instead of two, a socketed desktop CPU instead of soldered, an M2 SSD option to add storage. I had the cheese grater Mac Pro and it was just as beautiful inside as out. So well though out for upgrades. I know the market data tells Apple not to bother. But I personally wish they would.

They made it as small as they could without stopping to think if they should. This size forced them to use more expensive, slower, less powerful mobile components. Nobody was asking for a desktop computer that small at the time, just some headless box that wasn't a multi-thousand dollar Mac Pro.

If you're willing to spend a lot of money, then go for the MacBook or the MacBook Pro - and those two have clear performance and size/weight differences.

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Now the Air is the better buy for many people over the Pro and has Touch ID but not Face ID .

The Air has been the best buy for several years, on both MacBooks and iPads. They have always been the right compromise between price and performance for the majority of customers and also the best selling models.

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The Pro model has an old processor but more ram.

The Pro model is available with an i9 processor, which is a few months older but much *much* more powerful. It will kick the shit out of this new MacBook Air on every bench test.

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The Air maintains a headphone jack but the iPad Pro doesn’t have one anymore - but instead USB C for which you need another dongle.

I'm pretty sure the Air only has a headphone jack because there are so many people working in audio who demand one. iPad users don't have the same demand.

I do some audio work and have both a MacBook and an iPad connected to a sound desk - two months ago we switched from the headphone jack to USB for the Mac (partly to get more channels, and partly because the sound desk has a professional DAC), while the iPad has never used cords for anything - it connects to the sound desk over Ethernet (we use it via a WiFi router but for more serious work we'd get a lightning Ethernet adapter).

The iPad doesn't have a headphone jack because there are less people who demand one. Simple as that.

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They all have a crappy keyboard.

A lot of people love the keyboards, most complaints are about reliability... which allegedly has improved.

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It’s beyond me why they would not upgrade the processor generation in the Pros.

Because upgrading is expensive (changes to the production line and you end up with a global inventory full of old models that can't be sold at full price anymore) and the latest generation intel processors are barely an improvement over the old ones. Intel's single core performance flat-lined ten years ago and hasn't really moved since - they've added more cores to combat that, but how many cores do you want in a MacBook Pro? They've already got 12 logical cores (6 physical ones with two hyperthreads each).

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The only model without a major compromise seems to be the mini, except that it lost its innocence and had a steep price increase for the entry model.

I think Apple has finally acknowledged that the Mac Mini was never popular because it was cheap, it was popular because of the size, and people who care about size tend to be pro users who would prefer to pay a bit more for additional performance and features. Finally a properly fast SSD, a bunch of PCIe lanes dedicated to externally plugged in devices and 10Gb Ethernet for example. Stuff like that isn't cheap.

Damnit Apple, I really really like macOS and my MBP13 2013. It hasn’t died yet but it might soon and when it does you’ve made it incredibly difficult to consider another MacBook to replace it with. What happened to you guys. That silicone valley lifestyle has convinced you that the rest of the world makes drops a grand on regular lifestyle expenses a week

The thing I don’t get about comments like this is that Apple has NEVER offered machines at a lower price point than similarly equipped non-Apple computers. Apple has always been “expensive” compared to other brands. Yet that didn’t stop you from getting your current MBP2013, which undoubtedly cost more than $1000.

I ended up with a used trash can Mac Pro for my desktop Mac workstation. Upgraded the Xeon and RAM by myself but being stuck on TB2 is a bit of a pain. In retrospect I probably should've waited for the Mac mini refresh.

TB3 is amazing if you get your work environment set up properly. I'm a little disappointed about the lack of user replaceable storage, but this machine seems like it should keep desktop Mac users (and in particular schools and university IT offices) happy.

I ended up with a used trash can Mac Pro for my desktop Mac workstation. Upgraded the Xeon and RAM by myself but being stuck on TB2 is a bit of a pain. In retrospect I probably should've waited for the Mac mini refresh.

TB3 is amazing if you get your work environment set up properly. I'm a little disappointed about the lack of user replaceable storage, but this machine seems like it should keep desktop Mac users (and in particular schools and university IT offices) happy.

It is kinda crazy that the Mac Pro is now the only mac without usb-c (either plain usb3 or TB3).

Does it have any AppleTV like capability to support its use as a HTPC? If it can run iOS apps and function like a remote controlled aTV while still having all the capabilities of a full OS then I’m interested.

I also wish Apple put one Thunderbolt 3 port on either side of the device—being able to charge up or connect to peripherals from both sides of a laptop is useful, particularly when you're in a tight space.

My guess is it's only got 1 Thunderbolt controller in it, and I don't think you can run traces all the way across the side of the case to have ports on both sides.

Full size Macbook Pros have 2 Thunderbolt controllers, one on each side.